I. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to various computer-aided methods and apparatus for assessing an organizational process or system. The term "assessing," as used herein, refers to gathering information about, and/or measuring or evaluating, at least one organizational process or system.
II. Description of the Related Art
Large entities such as corporations, professional associations, and government units typically use a wide variety of suppliers of goods and/or services. In this context "suppliers" means third party providers, as well as in-house divisions, subsidiaries, departments, and/or systems. These entities often attempt to optimize the quality of their suppliers, based on the theory that a high quality supplier typically provides high quality goods and/or services. One method of assessing suppliers involves on-site audits and inspections. Such audits and inspections, however, tend to be burdensome, expensive, and time consumptive for both the assessing entity and the supplier. Therefore, persons in the art have searched for methods and apparatus to enhance their ability to assess suppliers in more expedient and efficient ways.
One method of assessing suppliers involves asking representatives of the suppliers, or representatives who have worked with the suppliers, to answer questions and to provide information concerning organizational processes or systems used by the supplier. Such surveys may be used to assess characteristics of the supplier. A problem with surveys; however, is that validation of the accuracy and/or truthfulness of answers received is often difficult and/or expensive. That problem may be particularly acute when assessing interested persons such as suppliers of goods and services. The most informed and appropriate persons to be surveyed are often biased or interested parties. For instance, an assessing entity such as an automobile manufacturer may desire to assess whether its supplier of engines has appropriate inspection systems in place to minimize engine defects. In that instance, the most appropriate persons to question would likely be the engineers, managers, and other employees of the engine supplier. These persons, however, would also be interested parties that may provide biased, untruthful, or exaggerated answers in response to survey questions.
In sum, it has long been a belief in the assessment industry that surveys, while significantly less expensive and time consumptive, are also less accurate since it is difficult to determine whether answers provided are biased, untruthful, or exaggerated.
Despite the infirmities of surveys, cost and time considerations nevertheless dictate that surveys be used. One popular survey technique prompts the person answering the question (the assessor) to provide answers on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 to 100, or on a percentage basis.
Surveys may be efficiently presented to assessors using computer techniques. In one computer-aided survey, a sliding bar scale (often referred to as a "thermometer") is used to help the assessor provide answers on a scale.
In use, assessors using sliding bar scales "slide" the bar to a particular scale value which represents their perception or answer. Typically, arrow keys (on a keyboard) or a "mouse" may be coupled to a computer and used to "slide" the bar. Alternatively, the user may input a number. The software may then represent that number graphically by moving the thermometer bar to an appropriate location. One example of a survey that used a bar scale is a software program called Insight Profiles.TM. made by Teams (Tempe, Ariz.).
Prior assessment methods and apparatus have used a data gathering technique called "conditional response." This technique involves presenting an assessor a question, and based on the answer to the question, branching to one or more subsequent questions. Each subsequent question may then also branch to further subsequent questions based on answers provided. In this manner a complicated "tree" of questions and answers may be prepared.
One problem with the conditional response technique is that the assessment criteria which causes and/or directs branching is highly subjective. Thus the person developing the criteria may bias the survey. Furthermore, preparing or revising a conditional response survey tends to be difficult and expensive since the "tree" is highly structured, thus making preparation of the tree, or revisions to the tree, complicated, time-consumptive and cumbersome. For instance, if an early question in the tree is changed, then a whole series of subsequent "branching" questions may also have to be changed. Finally, one problem with the conditional response technique is that available answers tend to be binary in nature instead of analog. Many questions to real world problems, however, cannot be accurately answered with binary (i.e., "black or white") responses. Instead, accurate answers to these questions are often in analog form (e.g., in "shades of grey"). The conditional response technique is highly structured, and thus is a less preferred method for prompting such analog answers since multiple and expensive branching would be required if analog responses were elicited in a conditional response survey.